{"id":12330,"date":"2026-04-23T10:15:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T22:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/?p=12330"},"modified":"2026-04-26T14:56:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T02:56:30","slug":"former-church-leader-sentenced-for-groping-teenage-relative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/?p=12330","title":{"rendered":"Former church leader sentenced for groping teenage relative"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Ella Scott-Fleming<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warning: This story details indecent assault offending.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A victim says her life hasn\u2019t been the same since she was groped by her relative, who was a church leader, when she was 17.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said the sexual violation in 2024 has had a lasting psychological and emotional impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But her elderly family member maintains his innocence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He defended one charge of doing an indecent act on a dependent family member under the age of 18 in the Manukau District Court in January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the conclusion of the jury trial, presided over by Judge Janey Forrest, the man was found guilty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While sentencing him in the same court earlier this month, Judge Forrest said the man\u2019s high social standing made his \u201cbreach of trust\u201d even worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYour [victim] and members of your community and congregation could be justified in expecting more and better of you,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The man, who is in his 70s, has permanent name suppression to protect the identity of the victim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An after-school \u2018massage\u2019<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

The court heard that in December 2024, the girl arrived home from\u00a0school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The offender called out to her and asked her to massage his shoulder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He would commonly ask his wife and other family members for massages, the court was told.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The man was sentenced in the Manukau District Court. Photo \/ NZ Herald<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After she massaged the man for 20 minutes, he said she could go and get something to eat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later, as she was walking to the bathroom, the defendant walked past her completely naked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In court, Judge Forrest noted this moment was not part of the charge but was part of what made the victim feel \u201cparticularly uncomfortable\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On that same day in 2024, the defendant again called out for a massage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time, he was wearing only a lavalava.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As he lay on the bed face down, the girl sat on a chair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then he turned over to lie on his back and asked his victim if she would like a massage, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said no, but he began rubbing her arm and shoulder, gradually moving down to her right breast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He groped her breast before moving down to her thigh, where he moved his hand up and down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He then warned the girl not to tell anyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During sentencing, the judge spoke of the man\u2019s \u201cbreach of trust\u201d in groping a family member.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also said there was premeditation as the defendant had waited until all other relatives were out of the house to assault the victim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other particularly strong feature of the offence was the effect it had on the victim, the judge said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said the young woman\u2019s victim impact statement was \u201cdifficult to read\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Withdrawn, unstable and often \u2018unwell\u2019<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

The court heard that after the incident, the teenager\u2019s behaviour changed \u201csignificantly\u201d. She became withdrawn, emotionally unstable and often \u201cunwell\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She struggled with her sense of self-worth and the unstable effect of having to relocate away from the defendant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The teen found it difficult to discuss what happened, often slept all day and didn\u2019t eat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She hoped that if she slept for long enough, when she woke up, the assault wouldn\u2019t have happened, she told the court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defendant a former pastor<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

The man had been a long-serving member of a Christian organisation and previously served as one of its pastors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judge Forrest said that in some ways, she saw his position in the community as making his \u201cbreach of trust\u201d worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The man\u2019s conviction and sentence would have an impact on his standing in his church and community, which the judge said was \u201cappropriate\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defence lawyer Heena Gherra said that without \u201cdiminishing the seriousness\u201d of the offending, this was the first time her client had been before the court in 30 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His previous convictions were for driving matters, she pointed out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She asked the judge for a sentence that would allow the man to continue his responsibilities to other young family members and his church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gherra said that because of his physical condition, he was unable to serve a sentence of community work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A vulnerable victim<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Crown prosecutor Aysser Al-Janabi highlighted the man\u2019s sustained indecent offending against a vulnerable victim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She didn\u2019t see how a sentence of home detention would interfere with the defendant\u2019s responsibilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judge Forrest sentenced the man to three and a half months of home detention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because he continued to deny his offending, she ordered no rehabilitative programmes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where to get help:<\/strong>
If it’s an emergency and you feel that you or someone else is at risk, call 111.<\/strong>
If you’ve ever experienced sexual assault or abuse and need to talk to someone, contact Safe to Talk<\/a> confidentially, any time 24\/7:
\u2022 Call 0800 044 334
\u2022 Text 4334
\u2022 Email support@safetotalk.nz
\u2022 For more info or to web chat visit safetotalk.nz<\/a>
Alternatively contact your local police station – click here for a list.<\/a>
If you have been sexually assaulted, remember it’s not your fault.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story was first published by The NZ Herald on April 16, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ella Scott-Fleming Warning: This story details indecent assault offending. A victim says her life hasn\u2019t been the same since she was groped by her relative, who was a church leader, when she was 17. She said the sexual violation in 2024 has had a lasting psychological and emotional impact. But her elderly family member<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[40],"tags":[117,113,1056],"coauthors":[475],"class_list":{"0":"post-12330","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-faith","8":"tag-church","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-sexual-offending"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/abuse-church.avif","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12330"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12391,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12330\/revisions\/12391"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12330"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=12330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}